Microplastics Found In Raritan River And Mouth Of Raritan Bay

MIDDLESEX COUNTY, NJ — There is a surprisingly high number of microplastics found in the Hudson River and Raritan River, Rutgers scientists have learned.

What are microplastics? These are tiny pieces of plastic that break off from plastic bottles, plastic bags and literally millions of other plastic sources in the U.S. and throughout the world.

For example, in the early 1900s, General Bakelite began manufacturing Bakelite, the first synthetic plastic on Earth, in Perth Amboy. Researchers say these tiny pieces of plastic could degrade water quality, and pose a risk to marine life, such as fish. Microplastics are found in water bodies throughout the world, but particularly in what Rutgers called "highly urbanized estuaries and coastal systems."

Rutgers teams have been studying the amount of microplastics in the Raritan for some time now. A 2017 Rutgers-led study found high levels of microplastics in the Raritan and Passaic rivers. And scientists later identified more than 300 organic chemical compounds that appeared to be associated with microplastic particles in the two rivers.

However now, for the first time, Rutgers scientists have pinpointed the sizes of these microplastics. They also think that the tiny plastic pieces could be coming from excess storm water runoff.

The Rutgers team collected water samples during a relatively dry period in July 2018 and after a heavy rainfall in April 2019. They also collected samples of wastewater entering treatment plants, wastewater discharges and stormwater.

The highest levels of microplastics, ranging from two-hundredths of an inch to less than a tenth of an inch long, were observed during summer low-flow conditions at the mouth of the Raritan River, according to the study in the journal Chemosphere. Higher concentrations of smaller microplastics collected from Raritan Bay and the Atlantic Ocean off New Jersey likely came from the Hudson River, said senior author Nicole Fahrenfeld, an associate engineering professor at Rutgers New Brunswick.

Polyethylene, which is widely used in high-density polyethylene bottles, trash bags and other items, was the most commonly observed polymer, or plastic, in the Raritan River and Hudson-Raritan estuary.

“The smaller microplastics likely spent more time in the turbulent Hudson River, leading to increased aging and breakdown of plastics,” she said.

“Storm water, an understudied pathway for microplastics to enter waterways, had similar or higher concentrations of plastics compared with effluent from wastewater sewage treatment plants,” she said. “More research is needed to increase understanding of the full impact of microplastics on ecosystems.”

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